How I spent my summer thus far

O hai :)

I have a bit of a love-hate relationship with summer. I like that I don't have to do as much school-related stuff, and that I have more time to read. However, I don't like the climate: it's hot, it's humid, I don't have a lot of summery outfits, and I sunburn easily. And let's not forget the bugs...

Still, though, last week was awesome for me, because I got to visit my sister last Saturday - and I got a little bit of reading done, too, because she lives about an hour and a half's drive away (sometimes an hour and forty-five minutes, depending on traffic, but last Saturday the traffic was pretty good).

It was a bit tricky to read on the way there, though, because the van was jolting around a bit. Overall, I think I only got a couple of pages read, but my book isn't due for another couple of weeks so it's all good. We got a bit turned around when we were trying to find my sister's apartment, but we found the way eventually.

We said hello to her cats (I got to finally meet the younger kitty, who is adorable :D), had a look around her place, then went out for lunch to a nice Japanese restaurant. I tried some of the sushi that my sister and my mom picked out, except for the raw stuff. The only ones I didn't like were one of the maki and the tamago (sweet egg on rice with a strip of nori around it). The textures of both bothered me. But my sister ordered a two-piece serving of the cooked shrimp on rice (ebi, I think it's called), which I love, for me. I think my dad ate the other one though :p We got tempura as well, and some gyoza, edamame, and beef and green onion rolls.

For dessert, all of us except Dad ordered ice cream - red bean for me, green tea for Mom, and I think my sister got vanilla. Then we ordered two sweeter tempura - banana, with chocolate sauce drizzled on it, and one called something like 'milk dumpling tempura'. The milk dumpling one was like a cross between custard and a doughnut, like an elephant ear (or beaver tail, as they're sometimes called). Both were delicious.

After that, we walked through the local mall. We went to the Lush store, where my mom bought some stuff for herself, then we browsed a bit in Costa Blanca and H&M. Then we went back to my sister's place and hung out with the cats, then headed home.

So that was my weekend: pretty awesome.

The book I'm reading from the library is Hereafter by Tara Hudson. So far it's pretty good - but it's also big, so I'm worried I won't finish it in time for when it has to go back. Fingers crossed...

Visiting my sister

I went to London, Ontario to see my sister Katie yesterday. My dad was meeting folks, so while we were waiting for him and my sister's boyfriend to come, the three of us - me, Katie and Mom - played Scrabble. Katie won, I came in second place, and Mom came in third. For me, the best part of the game was when I had a blank tile and got 'hijabs'. And, if I remember correctly, it was a triple-word score. Sweet :)

Also, she gave me three packs of gum. She bought this huge mixed pack of gum, and found out that she only liked one kind, so she game my mom three packs of peppermint gum and she gave me three packs of berry-flavoured gum. I was only going to take one pack when she offered us the gum, but she said, "You want two packs? Three?", and just gave them to me.

We went out to a Japanese restaurant for dinner. The food there is so good. I didn't eat any sushi (I wasn't too keen on it the first time I tried it), but I did have a bowl of BBQ pork udon, and some tempura, and some squid. Yum :) I also had a few edamame, which were quite good, and some deep-fried squid rings. Then everyone except Dad had ice cream. The servings of ice cream were small - which is actually good because desserts are often so huge. Mom, Katie and I had mango-flavoured ice cream and Katie's boyfriend had vanilla. The mango ice cream was so good!

I took two books with me for the trip there - a book about Bob Dylan, and Emperor Mage by Tamora Pierce. I was going to bring my discman, but I decided against it - I hate my discman. I really don't like the buttons on it, because you have to dig your finger into them, but that might have been because I had the discman on my bed while reading or something when I was using it. Anyway, I might have to get an MP3 player, so that I have some music to take with me on those long car rides.